Eric Holder faces questions in a hearing at the House Judiciary Committee, which started at 1 pm. He will be grilled on the IRS scandal, the subpoenas of Associated Press phone records, and other issues.

It’s Eric Holder’s turn back on the hot seat today at the House Judiciary Committee. During his first four years, the attorney general went through multiple grillings in Congress over the Fast and Furious gun-trafficking issue and others. The past week has brought new controversies over the Justice Department’s subpoena of Associated Press phone records in a leak investigation and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups. Mr. Holder said Tuesday that the Justice Department has opened a probe into possible criminal violations in the IRS case.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, is chairman of the Judiciary Committee and is expected to kick off the proceedingsin the next few minutes. The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, and other lawmakers will speak in what is likely to be a bruising afternoon for Mr. Holder.

With an overflow of reporters, cameramen and legislative staffers, audience seats for the public are scarce. As Attorney General Eric Holder entered the hearing room, an activist in the audience, who said before the hearing that he had waited in line several hours, stood up and urged the AG to appoint a new special envoy to address issues related to the Guantanamo Bay prison. Chairman Goodlatte warned the audience against further outbursts.

Mr. Holder doesn’t address the IRS or AP controversies in his prepared statement. He defends his record generally and calls for an overhaul of the immigration system. He also calls for Congress to restore funding that the Department of Justice and other parts of the government lost when the “sequestration” across-the-board cuts took effect earlier this year.

Rep. Goodlatte raises a litany of concerns in his opening statement, including whether federal agencies could have done better job at sharing intelligence before the Boston Marathon bombing. He also echoes continued Republican concern about Justice Department lawyer Thomas Perez, the administration’s nominee to head the Labor Department.

Republicans have questioned whether Mr. Perez acted inappropriately in brokering a deal with the city of St. Paul, Minn., to remove a fair-housing case from the Supreme Court’s docket. On the Justice Department’s move to obtain phone records from the AP, the chairman says any abridgement of freedom of the press is “very concerning.”

The ranking committee Democrat, John Conyers of Michigan, says in his opening statement that he is troubled that the government sought such a “broad array” of phone records from the AP. He praises the department for opening a criminal probe into whether laws were broken by improper IRS targeting of conservative groups.

After Mr. Holder finishes his prepared statement, Chairman Goodlatte begins with questions about information sharing prior to the Boston bombing. It does not appear that all of the information was received by all relevant law enforcement, he says. The attorney general says the FBI generally did a good job in acquiring the information that it could. Mr. Holder suggests the FBI didn’t get full information on the suspects from Russian officials, though he does not mention Russia by name.

Early “I don’t know” answers from Holder on AP phone-records subpoena questions — Holder had recused himself from the leak investigation that led to the subpoena — and has said he doesn’t know details on the investigation.

The attorney general notes that the head of the Republican National Committee has called for his resignation, but he again says he’s simply not a part of the phone-records and leak investigation. Rep. Goodlatte suggests DOJ should be more forthcoming with its decision making process for seeking the records.

The attorney general says a prior statement he made on the issue, expressing concerns about so-called too-big-to-fail institutions, has been misconstrued. There is no bank, no institution and no individual who cannot be investigated and prosecuted by the DOJ, Mr. Holder says. Let me be very clear, he says, “banks are not too big to jail.” If cases against banks can be proven, they will be brought, he says.

More on “too big to jail”: Back in March, Holder told a Senate committee: “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them.” Read our writeup.

Sensenbrenner says the committee is going to have to speak with Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who authorized the department request for the phone records. He also says no one at the Justice Department seems to want to accept responsibility for things that have gone wrong at the agency.

Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia returns to the issue of the IRS targeting of conservative groups and wonders what laws might be at issue in a potential case. He also notes the apologies from the IRS and asks, does an apology immunize you from criminal prosecution? No, says Mr. Holder.

GOP Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas asks whether the Justice Department probe of the IRS would be limited to specific IRS offices, or whether it would be broader in scope. Holder says the investigation will be as broad as it needs to be. The facts will take us wherever they take us, he says. Among the potential issues is whether officials made false statements, he says.

Here is more background on Holder’s too big to jail remarks: In March, Mr. Holder set off a fierce reaction during a Senate hearing when he essentially agreed that some criminal investigations of big banks were hampered because the banks were too big. His exact words were: “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on national economy, perhaps even the world economy.” He added: “I think that is a function that some of these institutions have become too large….It has an inhibiting impact on our ability to bring resolutions that I think would be more appropriate.”

It’s a sentiment on banks that Holder and other top Justice officials have expressed before, in various ways, but the March statement made headlines as an acknowledgement that some banks were too big to jail. But on Wednesday, Holder walked the comment back, claiming it was misconstrued.

In an unusual twist, Democrat Mel Watt of North Carolina conducts his Q&A of the attorney general with a child sitting on his lap. As his time for questioning winds down, he clarifies for the audience that the boy in question in his grandson. It’s the first light moment of the hearing.

California Democrat Zoe Lofgren is the latest committee member to express concern about the Justice Department’s subpoena of the AP phone records. It seems to me clear that the DOJ’s actions have impaired the First Amendment and done substantial damage to a free press, she says. Confidential sources are now going to be discouraged from speaking with the press, she adds.

Attorney General Holder pledges to the committee that the department will to an after-the-fact review of its approach regarding its leak investigation and the move to obtain the AP phone records. Under further questioning from GOP Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, Holder says his deputy, James Cole, would be willing to appear before the committee, but he says Cole likely won’t be able to answer many questions because the investigation is an ongoing matter.

GOP Rep. Darrell Issa hammers away at the past actions of Justice Department lawyer Thomas Perez, now the Labor Department nominee. The California congressman takes the unusual step of having the committee play an audio recording allegedly of Perez speaking about efforts to get a fair-housing case removed from the Supreme Court’s docket.

Thanks to past sparring, tensions between Rep. Issa and the attorney general run high, and their dislike for one another again is on public display today. A visibly agitated Holder criticizes the way Issa conducts himself, calling it “shameful.”

After the sparring with Rep. Issa, the attorney general has had a chance to catch his breath. One committee member mused on a variety of topics, including past legislation to combat potential helium shortages.

Rep. Judy Chu, a California Democrat, raises concerns about violent attacks on Sikhs and urges the FBI to begin tracking hate crimes against the American Sikh community. Holder concurs in her concerns.

Back to the Justice Department’s IRS probe, announced by the attorney general yesterday. Mr. Holder says the department will be “appropriately aggressive” in its investigation of the IRS’s actions in targeting conservative groups. But he also says he hopes the DOJ investigation won’t have a chilling effect on people raising legitimate questions about the ways in which groups seek tax-exempt status.

Programming Note: Our main video feed is switching over to regular WSJ programming, so we are removing that widget from the page. You can follow the video on C-Span or at the House Judiciary Committee’s website.

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio expresses concern that the new Justice Department probe of the IRS will impede efforts by Congress to investigate the matter. He accuses IRS official Lois Lerner of lying to him and says he wants her on the congressional witness stand to answer lawmakers’ questions.

Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene asks whether the attorney general believes the government has the right to obtain private emails without a warrant. She asks for the department’s support of a bill to update protections for electronic communications.

Holder responds the proposed House legislation is similar to a bill offered by Sen. Patrick Leahy and speculates the department will likely support it. The attorney general says he generally supports the notion of requiring a warrant, subject to certain exceptions.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Holder suggested there was no written documentation that noted his recusal in the leak investigation that led to the subpoena of the Associate Press phone records. Republican Rep. Thomas Marino of Pennsylvania asks: Why not have a paper trail for such things?

The attorney general reiterated his previous remarks that he doesn’t respect the congressional process that led to him being held in contempt of Congress for refusing Republican requests to turn over certain documents related to the bungled gun-trafficking operation called Fast and Furious.

During sparring with Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, Mr. Holder expresses frustration that the congressman won’t pause long enough for him to actually answer the questions. Rep. Issa, who has returned to the hearing room, jumps in to tell the attorney general that lawmakers can use their time as they please.

waiting to here this statement form Holder "it depends on what the definition of is is" ???

2:42 pm May 15, 2013

res ipsa loquitur wrote:

What everyone fails to understand is that these illegal actions were not accidents. They illegal actions were very deliberate. Expecting truthfulness from the these gang members and political thugs is a waste of time. JUST IMPEACH OBAMA, file criminal charges against the rest of the Administration of this U.S. Banana Republic, and expand the jail population with lifetime sentences for all of them: Tim G, Hill, Barry, Harry, etc.

2:35 pm May 15, 2013

JVB wrote:

Interesting to watch Holder's poor attempt at dancing around the questioning.
One thing for certain, he can't dance as good as Jay Carney...

2:33 pm May 15, 2013

Pennsylvania Farmer wrote:

I recused myself, I do not know when. Oh, there is no formal email, letter, or anything that I sent that said that I recused myself. You have to understand my confusion on this matter, therefore.

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